ynari wrote:

I loved my dual slot 1 machine - P3 500 to start, then P3 1GHz. I kept it as my main system until upgrading to a Core2 system; it rankled that after the P3, multiple CPUs became uneconomic for the average user.

Slot 1 CPUs tend to be annoyingly noisy, though, with their tiny fans. The case I used was rather warm, too. I replaced the standard slot 1 fan with a larger version, but it still ran hot. Might try with a thermal gap filler and a different case at some point.

My 450 MHz PIII is pretty decent, the only reason the HP Vectra makes any noticeable fan noise is because the PSU one is a tad tired. Then again, it doesn't have a fan on the CPU, only a massively thick one on the front with some plastic ducting over the CPU heatsink fins.

Bancho wrote:

This arrived today. Never had experience with dual CPU systems and saw this for a nice price and ended up being the only bidder. It's a Supermicro P6DBS with two PIII 550mhz CPU'S. Looking forward to messing about with it.

Nice, a P6DBS was the heart of my NT4 3D animation rig back in 2000/2001. I had some stability issues that were solved with updated SCSI drivers, but IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL bluescreens were the biggest problem. Turns out they were caused by buggy drivers for my ISA SoundBlaster card that didn't like multiprocessor systems. Reverting to the SB drivers that shipped with Windows solved it. Overall it's a good board and it was very popular among DIY workstation builders.

brostenen wrote:

Got this in the mail today. I paid roughly the same as 15 US Dollars including shipping.
(Yes, yes... I have a thing/Fetish for TNT2's)

I also like TNT2s personally. For me it was the first card that provided good 3D performance to last a few years. And it ran Quake 2 brilliantly at the time 😀 Quake 2 on a TNT2, the perfect match.

Tested the Viper just a minute ago. It is indeed an 32mb Ultra. Awesomme.... 😜
Gave me over 5000 in 3dMark99 on a P-III-500.

brostenen wrote:

Tested the Viper just a minute ago. It is indeed an 32mb Ultra. Awesomme.... 😜
Gave me over 5000 in 3dMark99 on a P-III-500.

That is an awesome card.

Lukeno94 wrote:

My 450 MHz PIII is pretty decent, the only reason the HP Vectra makes any noticeable fan noise is because the PSU one is a tad tired. Then again, it doesn't have a fan on the CPU, only a massively thick one on the front with some plastic ducting over the CPU heatsink fins.

Yeah, I have a HP Vectra with a fanless P3 for my firewall. My main retro system (P2 300) is similarly fanless and ducted (Gateway 2000 system). It is only 20W TDP, though.

There's a number of rather old Dell Poweredge 2400s at work, one of which is still in use (running Windows 2003, for VPN access. It takes five minutes to boot up). They're fanless and dual CPU, but to compensate there's a lot of very noisy fans in the case..

As to a dual P3 700 being too slow to run XP, I'm surprised. I ran a dual P3 1GHz for exactly that (or possibly it was Server 2003, same codebase anyway) until 2005. It worked ok, but the desire to run Oblivion and use PCI-e graphics cards finally forced an upgrade.It was rather faster, even if it was running Vista SP1.

GuyTechie wrote:

They said the same thing to me. Then the guy suspiciously asked what I was trying to do. I told him I was building a retro PC […]
Show full quote

keenmaster486 wrote:

GuyTechie wrote:

I found out there is a FreeGeek in Chicago (http://freegeekchicago.org/) - when I get some time to drive down there (has to be a weekend), I'd like to see if they have any gems. Hopefully much cheaper than ebay.

I went to the FreeGeek in Portland once (on vacation) and it was super lame. The only vintage stuff they had was a couple bins of old AT keyboard adapters. All of the other stuff was modern, and there wasn't very much of it either. I asked the guy and he said they just don't get that kind of thing. Kind of funny for a thrift store.

I hope the one in Chicago is better!

They said the same thing to me. Then the guy suspiciously asked what I was trying to do. I told him I was building a retro PC for old games - a big win would be a beige ATX case. The guy said "hold on...I think I know someone who can help you". I was introduced to this other guy who was also into old stuff and we had a good chat. Great guy! He immediately asked if I was on Vogons, but he does not frequent here, 🤣.

He let me look through a bunch of stuff they were going to recycle anyways. Most of the stuff they are selling "at the front" are only as old as Core 2 Duos/Athlon Phenoms, etc. Back where they were tearing stuff apart, there were old AT machines (386, 486, Pentiums) - I was in heaven! I also didn't want to over-buy (it'll just end up taking space).

I will have to take pics and list what I got. I was not able to get a CRT monitor, however - it was against their policy to sell or give away one. 🙁

Hey now, I frequent here plenty. I just don't post very much. 😀

Yeah, it's a shame to tear down all the old stuff, but we just don't have the room.

ynari wrote:

As to a dual P3 700 being too slow to run XP, I'm surprised. I ran a dual P3 1GHz for exactly that (or possibly it was Server 2003, same codebase anyway) until 2005. It worked ok, but the desire to run Oblivion and use PCI-e graphics cards finally forced an upgrade.It was rather faster, even if it was running Vista SP1.

My suspicions lay with limited RAM in that case. Having run a 1.1 GHz Duron with XP today (which is far more bloated than it was in 2005), you need 1GB of RAM if you want any kind of usability, and even then it's hardly super quick - you want a decent P4 or Pentium M (or AMD equivalent). XP apps probably aren't great in terms of multi CPU support either.

Yeah, I had at least 1GB in the system, possibly more as the GX chipset tops out at 2GB.

Picked this up, for the equivelant of 4.50 US Dollars. The price was just right, and I had a little chat about old computers with the seller.
I really don't know how many disks there are. My guess is around 110 to 120 pieces. (The big box is broken though)

Rawrl wrote:

GuyTechie wrote:

I was introduced to this other guy who was also into old stuff and we had a good chat. Great guy! He immediately asked if I was on Vogons, but he does not frequent here, 🤣.

Hey now, I frequent here plenty. I just don't post very much. 😀

Yeah, it's a shame to tear down all the old stuff, but we just don't have the room.

Hey, there you are! Thanks for helping out a fellow vintage PC guy. 😀 I'm actually new to the forums myself.

I haven't had the time to take photos of what I have so far, nor did I get a chance to test everything out yet, either. I got to test out the speakers, the P233MMX chip, and the Socket 7 HSF (well just one of them). Out of the 3 S7 HSF, only 1 fits into the Asus P5A. There are caps too close the CPU socket to allow for any kind of heatsink overhang. 🙁 The good news is the one that DOES fit is quieter than the old one. The old HSF is indeed a 40mm fan that is starting to rattle.

When I got home, a lot of time was spent testing the Roland SC-55 mkII I just got in the mail. That thing is awesome!

I'm going to take a couple days off so I can figure out a few builds that makes sense, then test, sort, takes pics, and store the stuff I can't use immediately.

Just picked a mint SB16 CT2230 with the original box and drivers, quite on the expensive side for 65$ but it's in almost new condition and it appears it's one of the later revisions.
No hanging note bug with the CT1747 chip that includes a real OPL3.
Hope my search for a perfect DOS sound card will be over along with the YMF719 which will be handling the SBPro2 and MPU-401 needs for these problematic games.

James-F wrote:

Just picked a mint SB16 CT2230 with the original box and drivers, quite on the expensive side for 65$ but it's in almost new condition and it appears it's one of the later revisions.
No hanging note bug with the CT1747 chip that includes a real OPL3.
Hope my search for a perfect DOS sound card will be over along with the YMF719 which will be handling the SBPro2 and MPU-401 needs for these problematic games.

Cool.... Really nice find.

James-F wrote:

Just picked a mint SB16 CT2230 with the original box and drivers, quite on the expensive side for 65$ but it's in almost new con […]
Show full quote

Just picked a mint SB16 CT2230 with the original box and drivers, quite on the expensive side for 65$ but it's in almost new condition and it appears it's one of the later revisions.
No hanging note bug with the CT1747 chip that includes a real OPL3.
Hope my search for a perfect DOS sound card will be over along with the YMF719 which will be handling the SBPro2 and MPU-401 needs for these problematic games.

1.jpg

2.jpg

3.jpg

4.jpg

5.jpg

Nice card, although it will only partially eliminate issues with hanging notes (not really an issue though as you're using a second card).

Yellow and orange tags were 50% off at Island Thrift last weekend, so I picked up a few input devices that had been tempting me for several weeks. A QuickShot Warrior 5 just like this one was my first joystick in the early 90s, but I've never owned a Gravis GamePad until now. The PS/2 mouse was icing on the cake - will have to collect the rest of the PS/2 system now 😉

brostenen wrote:

Cool.... Really nice find.

gdjacobs wrote:

Nice card, although it will only partially eliminate issues with hanging notes (not really an issue though as you're using a second card).

Thanks!
I really hope the CT2230 paired with the YMF719 will be the "be all end all" combination.

Just picked another SB16 a CT2890, it's full PnP with YMF262 OPL3.
See how it compares to the CT2230, I don't care for the buggy MPU-401 since I'll be using it with the YMF719 but I do care for SNR and a good OPL3 chip.

In total I have 5 ISA sound cards now:
SB16 CT2950
SB16 CT2230
SB16 CT2890
Yamaha YMF719
ESS ES1688

Got this little card today : XELO Geforce 2 TI

After taking some rest and selling some stuff i never use i'm back with some "new" awesome finds to play with:

Brand new and never used boxed EGA card on PC CHIPS G3101 (Western Digital PEGA1A?)

Temporary undefined super socket 7 mobo with 350mhz K6-2

Soundblaster 16 IDE CT2830

And an ZX Spectrum with PSU,joystick and cables!

And best part - it all cost me 11$

ynari wrote:

Yeah, I have a HP Vectra with a fanless P3 for my firewall. My main retro system (P2 300) is similarly fanless and ducted (Gatew […]
Show full quote

Lukeno94 wrote:

My 450 MHz PIII is pretty decent, the only reason the HP Vectra makes any noticeable fan noise is because the PSU one is a tad tired. Then again, it doesn't have a fan on the CPU, only a massively thick one on the front with some plastic ducting over the CPU heatsink fins.

Yeah, I have a HP Vectra with a fanless P3 for my firewall. My main retro system (P2 300) is similarly fanless and ducted (Gateway 2000 system). It is only 20W TDP, though.

There's a number of rather old Dell Poweredge 2400s at work, one of which is still in use (running Windows 2003, for VPN access. It takes five minutes to boot up). They're fanless and dual CPU, but to compensate there's a lot of very noisy fans in the case..

As to a dual P3 700 being too slow to run XP, I'm surprised. I ran a dual P3 1GHz for exactly that (or possibly it was Server 2003, same codebase anyway) until 2005. It worked ok, but the desire to run Oblivion and use PCI-e graphics cards finally forced an upgrade.It was rather faster, even if it was running Vista SP1.

That's the thing - it works "OK" but not really. I remember back in the day XP was slow on pentium 4 machines with SD-RAM. Oddly enough, it was decent on machines with DDRAM - even slower pentium 4s or duron machines. - and I'm talking about the first versions of XP - vanilla and SP1. As a matter of fact when I upgraded from my K6 to my duron (still used SD-RAM because I had a lot of it - 2x128+256 to be exact - on an 800Mhz duron with a Radeon 7500) XP ran like crap and I immediately rolled back to 98.

It's not until I got my first athlon XP machine (in 2001?) with 512MB of DDR333 that I could comfortably run XP. (and even then I dual-booted 98 for DOS games and old win9x games and stuff).